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¶ At North Chicago in two buildings of Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. (contact points) 63 sit-downers who had previously repulsed an assault by 125 deputy sheriffs (TIME, March 1) were suddenly awakened at 5:15 a. m. by a bombardment of gas shells and grenades. Looking out they beheld a strange object, a 20-ft. wooden tower erected on the rear end of a truck. From slits in the tower four marksmen with repeating guns were pouring tear and nauseating gas shells into the second and third story windows of the seized plant. The sit-downers put on masks or covered their noses with wet rags, their eyes with castor oil, and hurled machine parts and small containers of acid at the tower. Inventor of the tower was a former professor of English at the University of Illinois, now a Fansteel attorney. Remembering the battle towers used in ancient siege operations he designed it, but with bad scholarship dubbed it "The Wooden Horse." * After more than an hour's bombardment from this ingenious device, the sit-downers fled from the plants, were allowed to escape, although warrants had been issued for their arrest.
¶ Smaller sit-down strikes were disrupted by various means. In Philadelphia 60 sit-downers in a clothing factory were ousted by two policemen. In Decatur, Ill., 47 sit-downers in a wallpaper mill walked out when a sheriff threatened to oust them by force. In Los Angeles eleven sit-downers in a bakery quit, after the proprietor, with police aid, had prevented food being delivered to them and confined them for 48 hours to a diet of their own pies (twelve kinds).
¶ In Brooklyn 110 workers in a shoe factory sat down on union orders. Among the strikers were two sons and a daughter of Morris Baidowsky, president of the company. The union, sensible of filial relationships, allowed them to leave the factory and go to the movies. At nightfall a committee of 26 sit-downers was selected to stay the night while others went home. The secretary & treasurer of the company, Herman Baidowsky, another son, came to spend the night, He promised that if they would not break anything they could have light all night, and he would see that they got bedding so no one would catch cold. He also told them that the company's fire insurance forbade smoking, but if any one wanted a cigaret he could come to the office. Several accepted. Then he produced three decks of cards and they played poker together all night. In the morning they agreed to settle the strike by arbitration.
¶ Another sit-down strike never occurred. In a leather plant at Grand Haven, Mich., 300 workers organized a "stay-in." They did their work by day, slept in the plant by night. The management of the plant did nothing, for the stay-inners were trying to prevent sit-downers from seizing the plant. Said the leader of the stay-inners: "We have nothing to gain from C. I. O. organization here and we have taken steps to make certain that our jobs will not be jeopardized."